How I Work

Why New York Times reporter Nellie Bowles doesn't write her stories at a desk

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Episode notes

My guest today is journalist Nellie Bowles. Nellie covers tech and internet culture for The New York Times. Before joining The Times, she was a correspondent for “VICE News Tonight.” She has written for Recode, The Guardian, and started her writing career at the San Francisco Chronicle.

I met Nellie because she interviewed me for a story a couple of months ago and I thought it would be fascinating to hear about how a NYT journalist actually spends their days. We cover lots of topics in this interview, including:

  • How Nellie scored herself a job at the NYT
  • Nellie’s quirky strategies for becoming a better writer
  • Where Nellie finds ideas for stories
  • How Nellie prepares for an interview
  • Nellie’s go-to interview questions
  • Why Nellie doesn’t like reading about people before she interviews them
  • Nellie's approach for tuning out digital distractions
  • Nellie’s Digital Shabbat
  • Nellie’s go-to websites for staying up-to-date with tech news
  • Why Nellie doesn’t listen to podcasts

And much more.

Find Nellie on Twitter at @NellieBowles https://twitter.com/nelliebowles

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